Metaphorum 2026 · The World in Torment: A Time Whose Ideas Has Come

Designing Freedom. Still. And again.

History, it is said, repeats itself. Looking at the patterns of our current crises, the evidence supporting it is, once again, formidable. The central argument of this address is that this assertion is wrong. If we choose it to be. And that if we don't, this in itself would be the greatest tragedy — because today, perhaps for the first time in history, we have the knowledge and means to put ourselves on a new trajectory. We are not here by chance. Our societies are the result of design decisions made decades ago. The purpose of a system is what it does. And the purpose of our systems today — producing ever-greater inequality, deepening democratic erosion, intolerance and divisiveness, and putting more and more people in survival mode — is a call to action for anyone who cares about a just society and the development of the human condition. Three hidden forces converge to produce this reality. The first is rooted in human psychology — tendencies we cannot eliminate, only mitigate. The second consists of wrong systemic designs and structures locked in partly decades ago. The third, and perhaps most important, is choice. Conscious and unconscious choices. Past and present choices. Our own, and those of the leaders we choose to follow and choose to fail to hold accountable. In all three domains, we are not helpless. We have agency. Stafford Beer understood this with extraordinary clarity. Inspired by his foundational work in Designing Freedom, this address argues that bold choices, humanness, and radical optimism are not utopian ideals but design specifications for a better world. Speaker: Constantin Malik — Malik Group

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